Wow, what a good description about Edgar's passing Dad. I remember meeting him a number of times. That is way way neat that he had such an impact on people even in the last days of his life. Although I am sorry you had to go to so many funerals; those are hard. It sounds like you guys had a wonderful holiday. Picturing everyone sitting around watching movies or playing games is so so...fun. Actually dad this is the year of the RABBIT; Which just so happens to be MY YEAR. They come every twelve years and my 24th year I just so happen to be spending among the Chinese. Hooray for the year of the rabbit, Gong Xi Fa Cai! or however you spell it. I have come to love Chinese New Year, it is so fun, with such good food, and amazing red and gold decorations. I love it. So for all you Rabbits out there, Live it up this year! Ya, I know, rabbit is a lame animal. Sister Wong was born the year of the Dragon, how cool is that? But at least I wasn't born year of the cow, how sucky would that be. Count my many blessings.
Sorry it got so cold to ski, what a tragedy. Doesn't seem possible that the weather can really get that cold. Here in Miri we celebrated New Year with a Branch party at the church that was a total disaster. I didn't think party planning was rocket science but for people here, it might as well be. There was a bunch of delicious curry dishes layed out for display right when you walk in, but they decided to first usher everyone into the chapel and sit while each and every person with a calling in the branch made a speech. Then they started showing some of the DVD made from youth conference, which nobody cared to see except for the youth. Sister Lowe had about enough and asked the lady who seemed to be in charge what the deal was, people were hungry! The RS pres said, "Well last year we ate first and then after the food everyone left and didn't stay to have any fun; so this year we are making people have fun first before they can eat." Right..... so..... That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. The party was started at 6:00pm and by 8pm everyone was still in the chapel bored out of their mind. Finally at 830pm we ate, but by that time almost everyone had gone home. As people were leaving Sister Wong was trying to get them to stay but my thoughts were, "let 'em go, this party blows, I'm embarrassed to make them stay". You see, the key is to get people having fun WHILE they eat. Is that so hard? Oh it was embarrassing; especially since we talked up the party to all of our recent converts and got them all to come. All of them left before getting any food. I'm just the missionary though, not the party planner, not my deal. And maybe it is just my past of fabulous Christmas/New Years parties that made this one blow so bad, maybe the locals thought nothing of it and had a great time..... doubt it.
Want to know something funny. It's been the holdiays right? And we have been fed a lot and been invited to people’s houses a lot, and poor Sister Wong is putting on a little bit of weight. It's just what happens to sister missionaries in this mission. I personally haven't noticed it but everyone we meet comments about her weight gain. Poor girl. I got it too when I first arrived. The interesting thing is though, after they point out that she has gained weight they compliment her on how good she looks, and how much cuter she is now that she has gained a little. They even have said, "Sister Wong soon you will be beautiful like Sister V, look how big she is". What a compliment..... It shows how messed up our society is and how freaked out everyone is about getting fat. The people here love it, they think it's beautiful. We were talking with a man and wife the other day trying to get them to come to church and he kept saying he only had a motorcycle, how could he bring his wife? We told him to double up and have her sit behind. He laughed and said about his wife standing right next to him, "you see my wife? She's fat! The moto won't hold." She wife just tipped her head back and laughed. Wow, couldn't believe her husband would insult her like that; but she didn't mind, afterall, it was true. To them saying someone is fat is just like saying someone is tall, it's just an observation. Weird people.
I think the theme for this past week is God Works in Mysterious Ways. I don't think I have time to write about all the roundabout ways God has blessed our missionary efforts this week. It's been in really, REALLY mysterious ways; like ways that seem everything is going wrong until the very very very end.
EXAMPLE: A good portion of our Recent Converts have gone back to the bottle. They drink more now than they EVER did before they were baptized. No matter what we did we couldn't get them to remember their coventants, or care about them. It felt horrible. I thought to myself, "they're worse off now than they were before they met us and learned. Wasn't it better for them to just sin in ignorance?" uhhh it stunk. It got so bad that they started causing a disturbance in the area they lived. We went to their house one day only to find they had run because everyone in that area hated them. They jumped cities. They didn't even say goodbye to us. It hurt. BUUUUTTTT, the family that moved into their old house is a family we have been trying to work with for a very very long time now. Before, this family of four kids lived in a house full of Muslim bachelors and it was impossible teaching conditions. The father of this family wanted nothing to do with us, and the wife was so shy she would only follow her husband. We helped this family move and now they are in a home of their own. The father came up to us and told us he wanted to learn. I was so shocked simply because he did not like us at all before. He said he didn't want to be the way he was anymore, which was a total drunk. I think it had to do with all the trouble he saw his friends (our recent converts) get into because of alcohol. I thank heaven their poor example of the church didn't affect him for the worse. We are teaching the family now. The wife is thrilled we are helping her husband stop smoking and drinking. She is also thrilled we are helping her 11 year old son stop smoking and drinking....how disfunctional. It's good there was a rainbow at the end of our recent converts tragic storm.
EXAMPLE 2: Last week we worked really hard to find a lot of new people to teach. Our efforts were blessed and we did indeed find many who said we could come back. Unfortunately, last night when we went back to each of these homes, all three of them had stood us up. One house was completely black and locked. Another house had all the lights and generators on, people inside, but they wouldn't answer the door. As we walked away we could see people peeking out the windows. How mature are we??? And the third just simply said they didn't want anymore. It was about 8pm at night and I was bummed. Luckily my little junior has a spirit no one can get down (I swear that's why they put juniors and seniors together. Either they are so happy all the time because they are clueless as to what is going on, or they really do have an amazing excitement for work regardless what happens). We were near a house of a lady we had met many weeks ago that nothing really came of. We saw that her lights were on so Sister Wong said "let's go chat with her" Personally, I wasn't too excited but off we went. Upat is her name, she was sitting on the porch with her three grandsons. It didn't take long for one of her grandsons to find out we were from a church. He said, "great! I have been looking for a church to join!" My thoughts: "Seriously?" Oh I have so much to learn as a missionary and I only have two months left to learn it. Then, a little while later her son came home. Her son was totally smashed and it was hysterical watching him try to walk up the crooked boardwalk. He sat down and talked with us for a while and he was the funniest drunk I have ever met (and I've met a million here). Although he was drunk, he told us that he had read the entire Restoration pamphlet we had given his mom, and had been searching everywhere for a Book of Mormon. Sister Wong reached into her bag and pulled one out saying, "oh you mean this book?", handing it too him. He was so happy. I don't know what it will be like teaching him when he is sober, we shall see, but his mom did say that when he is sober he really is a smart boy and has a desire to learn.
Nothing may come of these two people we met last night, but I still know it was Heavenly Father's way of blessing us for hard work. I remember hearing stories like this, or "the last house at the end of a very long dark neighborhood street" kind of stories in the MTC thinking, ya right that's totally a made up story; I've heard the gist of that story a million times. I've learned though, that the reason I may have heard a story similar to it so many times is because every missionary, probably in every mission, has an experience like this one. An experience where they are tired, frustrated, mad, and at the point of giving up, but they don't, and then God blesses them. Now that I think about it, it has happened to me over and over again. Oh how much He loves His missionaries. It's good to be one.
I love you all. I know it's all true. No doubt in my mind
Sister viehweg
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